"Dan Byers" <goofygraffix_at_geemail_dot_com> wrote:
> "gregjohn" <pte### [at] yahoocom> wrote:
> > I think the biggest thing I'm missing is arcs and non-linear motion...
>
> When you say "arcs and non-linear motion", what exactly are you refering to?
>


ARCS:
I acted out a hand gesture with my own hands.  Then I quickly programmed a
spline to do this motion.  When I saw my character do it, it was instead a
violent, pointless thrust of the arms instead of the graceful gesture I made
with my own body.  I realized that I was missing the animation principle of
arcs. If you move something, it's good for it to be in a big wide arc-- a
smoothly sloped curve IN SPACE.

NONLINEAR MOTION:
All the pro packages talk alot about spline editors-- that you can have your
movements show acceleration and deceleration. That is, the movement from point
to point goes along smoothly sloping curves IN TIME.

Now I've got the macro that lets me type in 4D vectors to do the smoothness in
time.   I think I need to get it also to be a smooth curve in space.  And with
all this typing, I think I just figured it out.  I'll just "waste" the first
point and use cubic splines in my current macro.  I'd really wish there were
akima splines, however.  These IIRC allow for smooth movement even with the
first point.

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